The Auto Industry Races Toward Electric Vehicles

Force Energy Corp. (OTC:QB:FORC Company) is a junior lithium and rare earth metals mineral Canadian exploration company with over 1.7 million tons of lithium reported.

Demand for lithium is currently at an all time high , as today lithium batteries power the majority of mobile electronics and electric car batteries.

It is predicted that carmakers will take over laptop computer manufacturers as the biggest customers of lithium-ion batteries by 2015. Toyota’s Prius is a popular example, and it comes with a nickel-metal-hydride battery.

Hybrids such as the Prius use recharge batteries internally rather than by being plugged into a charging system at home or public stations. Newer versions of hybrids, such as the Chevy Volt, are plug-ins. Nissan’s Leaf, another new entrant into the market, is all electric, as is Ford’s Focus Electric.

Sales of lithium-ion batteries for cars are set to reach $11.9 billion by 2015, when notebooks will account for $6.6 billion. Overall, lithium-ion battery revenues for all applications will grow from $11.8 billion in 2010 to $31.4 billion in 2015 and then $53.7 billion in 2020.

As a result of this demand, lithium prices have jumped from $4,000 per ton to $5,000 to $7,000 per ton. Force Energy plans to develop its ZORO 1 lithium property which has an estimated 1.7M tons of lithium bearing minerals to satisfy the increasing worldwide demand for lithium.

The amount of lithium needed to make the battery packs in millions of planned electric vehicles will be unprecedented. The scrappy race to secure lithium deposits may even outdo the race to secure new oil deposits.

Lithium is also widely used in various pharmaceuticals and fusion experiments. Soon lithium demand will leap even higher, though, with electric vehicles using large amounts of lithium in their battery packs.

For decades, lithium saw small demand for use in mood-stabilizing drugs and thermonuclear weapons. That demand began to creep up as cell phone makers adopt it as their battery material of choice, thanks to its high energy density per volume and weight, compared to other technologies like nickel metal hydride. And now those same lures — the low weight per energy density — have lured in its biggest customer yet, the auto industry.